Or in 1988, where it was claimed/reported that RTE may have scrapped RTE2 to pay for staging the ESC.

I was pleased last year when Ireland ranked 10th, an impressive position for a Western nation in the past few years, and it certainly helped that Brian Kennedy put in a good vocal performance - maybe people remembered him from performing at George Best's funeral, that was certainly an advantage.

I think that next year's Making Your Mind Up needs more promotion, and a more varied and open competition.

B): THE BIG FOUR SHOULD ALWAYS GET AUTOMATIC QUALIFIFICATION AS THEY CONTRIBUTE MORE MONEY. tHE THRE REMAINING PLACES IN THE WESERN GROUP WOULD BE LOTTERY. THE FIVE REMAINING COUNTRIES WOULD BE BY LOTTERY AND THE SIX EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WOULD BE BY LOTTERY. tHERE WOULD BE NO SEMI-FINAL.

The lowest scoring countries in each group (bar the big four) would be removed from the lottery the following year. Only participating countries would vote. This would make it much faiere.